In the first part of the article we present an update of Gagné and Dionne (1988) results. We show that trucking industries in Quebec and Ontario had a cost structure, during the period 1981-1988, that corresponds to a competitive industry; this justifies the recent deregulation moves. The...

Discussions on the effects of the recent deregulation of Québec trucking industry are not unanimous. Some argue that deregulation will reduce competition because there are potential scale economies while others argue that the industry is characterized by constant returns to scale. In this paper...

Taxpayers may respond to changes in income tax rates in several manners. One way to classify them is to distinguish between behavioural changes (changes in labour supply, changes in the weights of the different types of labour income, changes in saving behaviour, etc.) and income reporting...

This paper provides an econometric analysis of franchise fees and royalties using a sample of franchises in Québec. Our results do not reveal any evidence of simultaneity between franchise fees and royalties. These elements act as a signal, from franchiser and franchisee, and deal with moral...

Private and social costs are significantly different in the transportation sector. These differences are a source of economic inefficiencies which can be reduced by using two traditional economic tools: pricing and taxation. We explore the reasons that may explain why pricing and taxation are...

In this paper, we analyse the effects of the inequality in the distribution of medical resources on the use of elective surgeries taking into account the mobility of the patients between geographical areas. In the first part of the paper, we present a theoretical model which analyses the effects...

Our society faces many risks that affect human life. Cost-benefit analysis is a very popular project-evaluation tool for reducing these social risks. The government has to set projects or regulations whose benefits will outweigh costs. It is quite easy to evaluate costs but how to evaluate the...

In this article, we present a problem of investment under uncertainty. When the managers make investment decisions they do not know the market (sales opportunities); however they know the price and the a priori distribution of sales. We compare the behavior of risk averse firms to that of risk...

The essays published in this collection reflect many issues of the actual research on the economics of uncertainty and information. Although they do not cover all the topics, they are related to the main developments since the first important meeting on the subject (Paris, 1952). Two aspects are...